ejran

“As students of history will know Nazi Germany dressed up its invasion of Poland as self defense.”
This is very important. Someone should do an in-depth study (or maybe it has been done?) on the language used by aggressors throughout history. Arguments of self-defense, provoking the oppressed and then saying look, they started it, blaming civilian deaths on “human shields”, etc etc- the parallels are incredible.

I am sorry, but my stomach turns at the use of some apologist terms at the end of this article, terms that water down the reality of occupation and injustice. ‘Israeli settlements (…) are considered by Palestinians and the international community as a major roadblock to peace efforts.’
‘Some 600,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements (…) on land that Palestinians want for a future state.’
‘Peace efforts’, lands ‘wanted’ for a ‘future state’. It is useful here to remember the words of prominent settlement activist Daniella Weiss:

“It’s true that in the course of history Arabs came to this area from all over. But the promise of God is more important than the changes in history and the political changes. That is why you have to put it deep, deep into your mind that you do not have any chance whatsoever, in any point of history, neither you nor any of your offspring, to ever have an independent state of your own here. In my many talks with Ariel Sharon and my work with Ariel Sharon there was a clear understanding, a very clear planning, of spreading the Jewish communities in the way that there will be no option for a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.”

Do you really believe that, Misterioso? Do you believe that those in the wrong will necessarily have their days numbered? I feel like history shows otherwise. It shows that power makes it possible for injustice to persist- and I truly hesitate to say indefinitely. Read about Israel’s brutal dehumanization of Palestinians, its powerful brainwash of its citizens, the way it not only ignores but actively encourages settlers crimes such as these, for one hour and you wonder how anyone can go on living with a clear conscience while this is taking place. Why is the world not on fire. How can an Israeli sleep at night knowing that his house is built on a mass graveyard? How can I sleep at night when, against all our throats and all our pointless protests, I will soon get my electricity from Israel? Why was the world not on fire when the white man enslaved the colored man, killed him by the thousands like one sprays insects, believed, and to some extent still believes, he is the chosen race, the future of humanity? Why is the world not on fire because money is allowing the planet to be killed and millions to become homeless or die? The “chosen ones” have enough money to commission special planes built for emergencies, including the imminent death of Earth (didn’t Trump just have one built for himself?). History will judge those whose conscience told them something but they remained silent. History will not forgive those who found justifications, who silenced the voice of justice just because it cost too much, who stood witness to this and did nothing. What do I do? I don’t want to sit by and do nothing.

“As was said quite openly, the Palestinians had to be taught a lesson they would not forget, so as to drive any idea of an unarmed mass action out of their minds.”

This, this is extremely important to read and remember right now. More people should do more of this: digging into the not-so-distant past, when some leaders were more honest about the state’s true intentions, and showing the world that his is a policy- thought out and tried out time and time again in all deliberation. This needs to be called by is true name: not “self-defense”, not retaliation, not security; this is mass murder.

I would like to find numbers on this- the rate of intermarriage between Jews and non Jews in Israel. And then, of course, I could swear it is always a non-Jewish man and a Jewish woman. This is probably irrelevant and not the place for this discussion, but as an arab woman of religious minority, the glaring, sexist double standard in this issue angers me: Palestinians would rally in support of a mixed wedding only when the woman is the “other”. It is exactly the same between Muslims and Christians in our so-called “tolerant” societies. We take your women, but we would never give ours. What would then happen to a household? (Because, of course, a household is defined by the religion of the father). Until a muslim woman is free by law to marry a christian, until a christian or muslim woman is free to marry a jew, until a christian woman can love a muslim without fearing being shot to death by her male relatives (at worst) or having to cut ties with her entire family (at best), all this talk of coexistence is nonsense. All this boasting of how forgiving and tolerant our societies are is pathetic. This conflation of religion and race is the root of all evil. True, with islam and christianity in the middle east (I hate the term; Arab countries, rather) it is less a question of “purity” and more a question of identity, but it is still a similar problem. It is the belief that an American Jew has more right to a land than those who were born there, because of his “genes”. It is the idea that an American man is by default a christian and is therefore “closer” (genetically? culturally? spiritually? racially?) to me than my muslim friend with whom I share the same language and the same culture; it is the idea that any random Malaysian or Turkish or woman would definitely make a better mother for that muslim man’s children, just because she is a muslim. Religious identity is dangerous. The idea of “jewish blood” is misleading and dangerous, and I feel that, post 9-11, a similar idea of “muslim blood” is being perpetuated earth-wide and is taking hold of people’s minds. People use the words arab or palestinian or jordanian less often- they say muslim, using it as an ethnicity.

It really is unbearable. I watched the interview with her and I couldn’t stop crying.
She could have been my sister, my friend, my colleague. What consolation could one offer to her grieving mother? She was so young, so determined and so joyful. She had given her life to saving others. She had so much energy, so much strength. As a woman in this culture, I am humbled to tears by her persistence. “If they do not want to accept us (women) by choice, they will be forced to accept us. Because we have more strength than any man.”

It was premeditated. She was targeted. Like so many others. And the fact that this will most definitely be brushed aside, whitewashed, justified as “self-defense”- the fact that Israelis will call her a “terrorist”- already makes me sick to my stomach.

While the point of this article cannot be made strongly enough, I just want to throw in the side comment that shouting your solidarity on the streets is not that easy and risk-free everywhere in the world.

In certain parts of the world, you can be arrested for “inciting violence” by singing a palestinian song on the street, or you can peacefully fly a kite in solidarity and suddenly have an official run towards you and cut the thread off with a knife.
Meanwhile, images of mass protests for Palestine in Chicago, London, and Latin America fill the local newspaper.

@Misterioso- thank you. Can somebody tweet this and retweet this? I am not on social media, but this has to be shared widely. These instances of blunt honesty by Israeli officials need to be held on to.
I will add that it is not just because they are “not jewish”, but as a previous article here on mw mentioned, it is because they are an uncomfortable reminder to Israel that it is a country build on a mass graveyard.